「比」、「興」、「文學」──王夢鷗與徐復觀文論之異趣

Bi, Xing, and Literature: A Disagreement between Wang Mengou and Xu Fuguan

1980年初，《中外文學》刊出王夢鷗（1907-2002）一篇文章〈劉勰論文的觀點試測〉，隨即引發徐復觀（1904-1982）撰文痛批，連續三天佔據《中國時報》版面，是為〈王夢鷗先生「劉勰論文的觀點試測」一文的商討〉。王、徐均藉解讀劉勰（465-522）《文心雕龍》，各自建立論述基礎，但其實兩人的觀點分歧，乃根源於兩套不同的「文學」觀念。此中，「比」、「興」皆被視為「文學」的特性。王、徐如何理解「比」、「興」，深深左右了兩人的「文學」觀念。徐復觀早曾於1958年發表〈釋詩的比興──重新奠定中國詩的欣賞基礎〉，王夢鷗觀點主要見諸1964所出版《文學概論》，唯在1955年的〈電影編劇問題〉已露端倪。本文析較兩人的「比」、「興」之義，要之王夢鷗視「比」、「興」為「間接」、「繼起」的構辭法，切實印證「文學」是「語言的藝術」。徐復觀視「比」、「興」為詩中語言和事物之趨向「感情化」的「反省」、「直感」方式，後者尚有「觸發」、「形像」二義。由是，「語言」、「文體」、「情性」、「人格」這些理論概念依次浮現，徐復觀旨在打通文學與繪畫領域的「中國藝術精神」，遂與王夢鷗由詩到敘事體類「一氣衍成」的「文學」觀念，分道揚鑣。兩人的分歧，也折射出當時臺灣中文系學人看待新批評方法的兩種取向。

Wang Mengou’s article “Liu Xie Lunwen Guandian Shice” was published in the Chung Wai Literature Quarterly in 1980. This article was immediately criticized by Xu Fuguan's article in the China Times. Wang and Xu both build the basis of their discourse by interpreting Liu Xie’s Wenxing Diaolong, but their differences of opinion depend on two different ideas of “Literature”. Both of them once believed that the key concepts of “Literature” were bi (比) and xing (興), but their understanding of bi and xing was different. Wang believed that they refer to certain rhetorical devices, which proves that “Literature is the art of language”. Wang’s literary concept was a comprehensive literary concept that penetrated poetry and narrative genres. In comparison, Xu believed that bi and xing were two ways for creators to treat their feelings, his literary concept breaks the boundary between literature and painting, and is actually a kind of “Chinese artistic spirit”. In addition, the differences between the two also reflected the two different orientations of the “New Criticism” viewed by Taiwanese scholars at that time.